


Fixing Chains

by chicago_ruth



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: D/s, M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-17
Updated: 2011-05-17
Packaged: 2017-10-19 12:22:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/200807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chicago_ruth/pseuds/chicago_ruth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since Arthur started dating Merlin, he's been a better person. Doesn't stop him from still being an ass sometimes -- but Merlin is always there to set him straight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fixing Chains

Lance slammed into Arthur.

Not on purpose, of course; these types of things happened when you were playing football with your friends and you both went for a headshot.

Lance's eyes opened wide in shock, even as Arthur closed his own and grimaced against the pain of the impact. The two of them fell to the field in a tangle of limbs, Lance on top. Neither of them had the breath to speak, just lying there and collecting their bearings.

"You okay, Arthur?" Lance asked when he finally began to lift himself away.

Arthur nodded. "Yeah, I'm fi--" The words died in his throat when he saw it; a thin silver chain, clutched in Lance's hand. Arthur reached up to his neck and encountered only skin.

Lance must have noticed his gaze, because he stretched out his hand to offer the necklace to Arthur. The links at the end were popped open, stretched apart, and the chain was shorter than it had been before the fall. "Sorry, I must have accidentally snapped it," Lance mumbled.

It seemed harder to breathe now than it had a moment ago. Arthur suddenly couldn't bear to look at Lance anymore. He stood up, ignoring Lance when he offered a hand. "I'm going home," he announced.

Lance frowned. "What? Arthur, we're barely halfway through the game." He pointed to where Leon and Elyan stood, waiting for the two of them to rejoin.

"Whatever, I don't care." He stalked over to the benches that held their gear, clenching his fists tightly. Lance followed.

"Are you sure you're all right? Because you're looking a bit red--"

Arthur saw Lance reach out to touch him, maybe pat him on the shoulder or his back. Whatever he was trying to do, Arthur stepped away to avoid it. "Don't touch me," he near as growled. "Don't even talk to me right now."

"What?" The hurt that flashed in Lance's eyes sent a short, vindictive thrill through Arthur. _That would teach him_.

"I'm going home. I don't feel like playing with a bunch of no-talent losers who are too blind to see when they're about to run in to somebody." He ignored all of Lance's attempts to talk to him, shrugged off his hands and didn't answer any of his friends' shouts. His phone rang three times on the way back to the apartment -- twice it was Lance, once it was Elyan -- but Arthur didn't bother answering. The anger managed to keep him distracted right until he opened the front door.

\---

Merlin got back from grocery shopping and noted with some surprise that Arthur was already home. "I thought you guys were going out for lunch after your game?" he called out in way of greeting.

"Didn't feel like it," Arthur replied. Merlin peered into the living room, where Arthur was lying listlessly on the couch watching some game show. He rolled his eyes; typical Pendragon funk. At least he had changed out of his football clothes before deciding to sulk.

"Come help me put the groceries away," Merlin said. Arthur didn't move. With a tinge of annoyance, Merlin repeated the request. "Arthur."

That got a response out of him. He made his way to the entrance and picked up one of the grocery bags without a word. Even as they packed all the groceries into the fridge and the cupboards, Arthur barely said anything. It was starting to get on Merlin's nerves.

"So, what happened?" he asked, pouring them both a glass of water.

Arthur shrugged. "Nothing." He refused to take the glass when Merlin offered it to him. Merlin set it on the counter with an annoyed huff.

"Of course something happened. You're obviously upset."

"I'm _not_ upset."

"Are we really going to play that game, Arthur? Because if I wanted to date an emotionally stunted man, I'd go back in time two years."

A brief look of distress flashed across Arthur's face, though he clamped it down quickly. It was going to be one of _those_ days, Merlin deduced. "Listen, I'm just… not in the mood for this right now."

To which Merlin just nodded, though there was no way he would let it rest. With Arthur, it was always a lot better to get to the source of the problem (be it work or his father or yet another stupid row with Morgana) before he got to stew on it for too long. Merlin had learned that the hard way. They'd had their own explosive battle of wills back during the early stages of their relationship.

Arthur went back to lying on the couch. Merlin put the glass he had used in the sink, then brought the other glass of water to the living room and set it on the coffee table, but it wasn’t acknowledged.

Originally, Merlin had planned to spend the day catching up on some work -- at least until Arthur got back home -- but he knew that he'd never be able to concentrate now. Instead, he went to Arthur's office and found his cell phone and date planner. He closed the door, effectively muting out the sounds of the TV.

The missed call list on Arthur's phone showed Lance at the top, half an hour before Merlin had gotten home. He clicked the call button and waited for Lance to pick up.

"Arthur! Listen, I just wanted to apologize--"

"Lance, it's Merlin," he cut him off. "But I'm guessing your apology has something to do with why Arthur is moping right now?"

"Ah, well… probably, yeah."

"What happened?"

"Honestly? It was kind of weird. We were playing football, and we accidentally crashed into each other. Everything was fine, up until we realized that the necklace he always wears broke. He flipped out after that. I guess it must have had some sort of sentimental value?"

That actually explained everything. "Sentimental value" didn't begin to cover the meaning that necklace had for Arthur. "Yeah, something like that. Listen, I'll talk to him. How about we all -- and Gwen too, of course -- go out for dinner on," Merlin flipped through Arthur's date book to find an evening he was free, "Tuesday this week? He should be over his mood by then."

"Are you sure that's okay? Gwen and I would love to, but Arthur…"

"Don't worry, don't worry. There's this great restaurant I discovered a few weeks back, I'll text you the address. I've been meaning to go with Arthur anyway."

Lance thanked him profusely; Merlin had to admire a guy who continued to feel guilty in the face of Arthur's temper tantrums. Once the phone call was done, Merlin added the dinner date to Arthur's planner and high-lighted it in blue. Then, in pink, he circled the Wednesday lunch slot, which had yet to be filled with meetings. So many meetings; if Merlin didn't highlight them, Arthur would never notice the non-work related functions. It made him particularly glad that he himself worked from home most of the time.

Everything taken care of, Merlin made his way back to the living room. Arthur had emptied the glass of water, but otherwise didn't seem to have moved. "We're going out with Lance and Gwen on Tuesday," he announced.

Arthur groaned, as close to a refusal as he would probably get right now, but then he said, "Fine."

\--

Arthur stared at his day planner. Tuesday's dinner was highlighted in blue. He bit his lip and considered canceling anyway, telling Merlin that something work related had come up and there was absolutely no way he could do dinner that night.

But Merlin would be disappointed, and then he would be angry, and Arthur wasn't in the mood to have a real fight with Merlin. Not after that awful weekend where they'd basically avoided each other, despite living in the same apartment. He brought his hand up to his neck, to touch where the thin chain would have been. The thought of the broken links scattered across the park brought cold anger rushing back, more at himself than at Lance. He should have known better than to keep it on during sports, but he never took it off these days. That lapse of judgment had cost him.

He tore his eyes away from that annoyingly blue highlighted text. Wednesday's lunch hour had been circled in pink, with a few question marks with hearts for dots on the side. Arthur pulled up his calendar on the computer, the one his secretary kept updated for him; nothing new for Wednesday. Arthur quickly typed in a note -- "Keep this free unless it's an emergency" -- then picked up his mobile to text Merlin.

 _Wednesday at noon is fine._

He received a reply not three minutes later.

 _Great! I'll meet you at your office. ♥_

Followed by, _Be home by 6:30 tomorrow!!!_

Arthur rolled his eyes and responded with, _Yessir._

\--

A blue shirt was laid out on the bed. Morgana had given it to him some years ago, out of some misguided attempt to "expand his wardrobe"; something about him needing to experiment with more colors than just red. Red suited him just fine, thank you very much.

Merlin stepped out of the bathroom and walked over, right up behind Arthur, and wrapped his arms around him, using his superior height to his advantage. Arthur leaned in to the embrace and glanced over his shoulder, debating whether or not to kiss Merlin despite the awkward angle. That temptation died when Merlin brought a hand up to rub slowly against Arthur's bare collar.

"Wear the blue shirt today?" Merlin asked. His hand came to rest flat against Arthur's skin.

"Okay."

Merlin smiled and kissed him.

\--

The first thing Gwen said when they saw each other was, "Oh my god, is that a blue shirt?" She promptly covered her mouth with both hands, apparently shocked by her own sudden outburst. Beside him, Merlin chuckled quietly. Arthur bore it and grinned. "Well, I have to shake things up every now and then; can't seem too predictable."

Even Lance seemed surprised, though he was too polite to say much other than, "You look good in it," which was a blatant lie. Arthur did his best to ignore them and led them into the restaurant.

It was one of those generic places you would go to with family and friends on a weekend, where the food wasn't great and the noise far too loud for Arthur's tastes. Arthur hated the idea of the people in the booths around them being able to listen in on their conversations. And he hated not being able to see the shine on the floor -- who knew how many drinks and plates had been spilled? It was almost as bad as a movie theater. Not that he was so crass as to voice any of this, of course.

On top of that, since they had come with other people, he was forced to sit next to Merlin instead of across from him. He much preferred being able to look Merlin in the eyes than sitting there, pressed together, in front of people.

"Wow, I'm surprised you'd come here. Not you, Merlin, but Arthur. He's usually got such refined tastes? Not that you don't have refined tastes. Oh, you know what I mean," Gwen said with a laugh. Merlin just grinned, used to Gwen's rambling.

"I came here with Gwaine, actually," he explained. Arthur stiffened immediately; he didn't like Gwaine, and he didn't like the idea of Gwaine and Merlin coming to a restaurant, alone. The man was too charming for his own good.

"Apparently one of his regular hook-ups is a waitress here? I didn't ask who though."

"Sounds like Gwaine, I suppose," Lance commented. At least Lance had the decency to be somewhat disapproving of Gwaine and his ways. Unlike Gwen, who only giggled. Gwen was probably just as taken with Gwaine as Merlin was -- neither of them seemed to see how much of a cad he was.

Merlin leaned in close to Arthur and pointed at an item on the menu. "You should get this, it's amazing."

Mushroom and Broccoli Tilapia. Under the table, Merlin's hand gave Arthur's thigh a quick squeeze; Arthur was forced to bite down any protests he might have had.

The waitress came to take their order, smiling when Arthur requested the tilapia. "That one's really good, one of my favorites." Arthur grinned back weakly.

Conversation was mostly headed by Merlin and Gwen, the two of them talking about their jobs and some mutual friends of theirs. Gwaine came up once or twice more, to the point where Arthur knew that Merlin was doing it on purpose to piss him off. The most he could do was agree with Lance when he brought up how _shameful_ it was that Gwaine kept sleeping around with so many people. "He needs to find a real relationship," Lance argued. Gwen snorted. "Honey, what's a _real_ relationship?"

It was a little bit satisfying to see that even Lance and Gwen had their differences of opinion, no matter that they came across as the perfect couple most of the time.

Arthur noted that both Gwen's right hand and Lance's left one were hidden underneath the table. Were they secretly holding hands, or did Gwen have her hand on Lance's thigh, the way Merlin was doing to Arthur? He caught Merlin's gaze for a second, then looked away. Probably not.

Their food arrived, steam rising from the plates. Merlin had ordered some sort of pasta dish that was completely covered in cheese. It looked, and smelled, delicious. In comparison, the mushroom and fish dish sitting in front of him nearly killed his appetite. _Mushroom_ and _fish_. As if one weren't bad enough, somebody had decided to combine his two least favorite foods into a single dish. The broccoli was maybe salvageable, if it hadn't drowned in mushroom flavor yet, but the rest…

Merlin gave Arthur's thigh one last squeeze before he brought his hand up so he could eat.

The first bite was always the hardest. He had to keep his face neutral despite the desire to spit the food back out. He couldn't stop his nose from flaring, but neither Lance nor Gwen noticed. (Of course _Merlin_ noticed, but he tended to notice those kinds of thing.) He slowly whittled away at the meal, using the sort-of-tolerable broccoli and his soft drink (no alcohol, he had to drive them home) to wash away the taste.

Near the end Merlin must have been feeling merciful, because he switched their plates and said, "Here, lemme try yours."

Gwen giggled. "You two are so cute. All old-married couple-y and sharing food and probably knitting scarves when you get home."

"Gwen, you've been stealing bites from Lance all evening," Arthur pointed out. "And you and Lance actually _are_ married. And you're the one who knits for fun!"

"I don't even think knitting scarves is a thing married couples do," Merlin added, his voice tinged with amusement. "I think that's more of an old-people thing. Are you secretly old, Gwen?"

"Hey!" Gwen shouted indignantly, just as Lance started laughing. Gwen playfully slapped him. "You're supposed to defend my honor here!"

They all laughed at that, enough for the discomfort that had been building inside Arthur all evening to fade a bit. Conversation flowed easier without it, at least for Arthur, and he barely even noticed when Merlin excused himself to use the loo.

He did notice his mobile vibrating in his pocket. Both Lance and Gwen rolled their eyes when Arthur pulled the mobile out to check the text.

 _Apologize to Lance!!!_

Right. Arthur's entire body clenched up at the thought. He hated apologizing. It was a custom that had never been taught in the Pendragon household, because Pendragon men had to cling to their pride no matter what. Even now, years after he'd escaped from the firm hold of his upbringing, apologizing was one of the hardest things for Arthur to do.

But Lance deserved an apology. Arthur knew that. So he swallowed his pride and looked up at Lance. "By the way… um, I wanted to say that… I overreacted the other day. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. Sorry."

The look of complete shock that passed over the two of them was unwarranted, Arthur thought darkly. He'd been getting better at the 'not-being-an-entitled-twat' thing, and the two of them really shouldn't have been that surprised.

Finally Lance snapped out of it enough to mumble, "It's all right, no hard feelings." It looked like he wanted to say more, but Merlin got back.

"What did I miss?"

"Ah, nothing much," Gwen said. Merlin looked at all of them, shrugged, then waved the waitress over so they could pay.

\--

 

"Did you have fun at dinner?" Merlin asked.

"Not really." Between the shocked reactions about his clothes, all the mentions of Gwaine, and the damned mushroom-and-fish dinner, Arthur hadn't been able to just enjoy Gwen and Lance's company. Besides, he wasn't keen on chain restaurants, and he was less keen on _apologizing_.

Arthur squirmed in his seat. The stool was hard metal, not very comfortable against his naked skin, and it was only just wide enough for him to sit on. Its short height meant that Arthur had to fold his knees up, and to look Merlin in the eye he had to crane his neck. Seeing Merlin loom over him, still fully dressed while Arthur was naked, sent a rush through him. He felt his cock stir.

"So don't throw a temper tantrum again." Merlin's voice was as cold the stool.

"I--"

"I might have forgiven you if you hadn't sulked the entire weekend. I asked you what was wrong, Arthur, and you _lied_ to me." Merlin reached out to run his fingers across Arthur's collar, right where the chain would have been. Arthur shuddered.

"What was the point in lying, when the problem would make itself clear so soon?" Merlin trailed his fingers up the sides of Arthur's neck, leaving goose bumps in their wake. When Arthur didn't answer the question, Merlin gave him a look and squeezed Arthur's shoulder.

"No reason. I was mad at myself. I'm still mad. I'm sorry, I should have taken better care of it, I--"

"Arthur," Merlin said in a tone of voice that stopped him short, "I was mad because of your attitude, not because the collar broke. I talked to Lance, it was obviously an accident and neither of you are to blame for that. But you _are_ to blame for how you reacted."

"I'm sorry," Arthur whispered. The guilt that had built all weekend and festered the past two days was eating on him now. A small, irrational fear bubbled to the surface: what if this was the last straw? What if Merlin was finally sick of him, and would actually pack up and leave?

"The dinner was punishment for being a prat to Lance and me. And now you're going to get up, bend over the desk, and I'm going to spank you."

Arthur scrambled to his feet to do as he was told. That was the kind of punishment he relished; the kind that got under his skin and left its mark for days. Where all he had to do was take the brunt of Merlin's anger, and let it absolve him of guilt. He stretched out over the desk, placed in their bedroom for just this purpose.

"How long do you think the collar was?"

Arthur didn't have to guess; he had counted off every inch of that thing. "Eighteen inches."

"Let's round up to twenty strikes. Count them off." Merlin placed on hand on the small of Arthur's back, steadying them both.

The first strike was soft, easy. "One." It wasn't painful, but the after sting hurt regardless. The second was harder, lower down, and the heat that spread from it made Arthur groan. "Two."

Three. Four. Five. Ten. Merlin had spanking down to an art, Arthur often thought afterward (never during, he was too busy moaning and remembering to count, reveling in the utter humiliation of being bent over like a disrespecting schoolboy, a disrespecting son). He varied the strikes, both in speed and strength; enough to keep it unpredictable, enough so that Arthur could never properly brace himself for the pain and the pleasure curling outwards through his body.

By twenty, Arthur was moaning and sobbing, eyes wet with tears and hips thrusting back to meet the strikes. It was a relief and a disappointment when Merlin stepped back and pulled him into a hug. "Shh, it's all right, it's all right. I know you're trying; you're so much better than you were, I can see how much you want to be good."

And he did, he did. He liked being a better person, he liked that people smiled at him now, that people didn't cower when he stepped into a room, and he _loved_ that Merlin broke down his pride and barriers and put him together, fixed. Everything he didn't let himself dwell on before, everything that had been beneath him, everything that he had cast away as foolish -- it was possible now, with Merlin.

Arthur kissed Merlin's jaw, then let out a moan when Merlin grabbed Arthur's raw ass. He could feel Merlin's erection through his trousers, and suddenly all he wanted was to get his mouth around that cock. He slid down to the floor and mouthed at the bulge.

"What do you want, Arthur?" Merlin asked as he ran a hand through Arthur's hair. "I'm not a mind-reader, you have to tell me what you want."

"I want to suck your cock. Please, _please_ let me suck your cock." Arthur glanced up at Merlin; the hand in his hair tightened.

"Yes. Because you asked nicely. Come on, to the bed."

Merlin kept a firm grip on Arthur's scalp, forcing him to walk to the bed on his knees. He stayed on the floor while Merlin sat on the edge of the bed and undid his fly. "Go ahead."

There was once a time when Arthur would have said sucking cock was disgusting and filthy; demeaning and not something he would ever want to try. That was also when he still dated women out of some desperate attempt to prove to himself and others how straight he was. Merlin had taught him to let go and embrace it, to let himself _want_. It was okay to relish the feeling of a thick cock on his tongue, to love the taste and the smell and the absolute submission of having somebody fuck his mouth.

He gave the head a quick, tentative lick, then let his tongue travel down the underside of Merlin's cock. He had his hands on Arthur's head again, one thumb urging his mouth to open. Arthur complied, took Merlin's cock in as far as he could without gagging. Then the slow build began, working Merlin up enough that he would lose that fraction of control and just use Arthur as his personal fucktoy.

Merlin didn't bite down his moans -- he never even tried to. Each one of his moans echoed through Arthur's bones, made him glow with pride that he was the one making Merlin feel so good.

"Come on, Arthur, you can take more, I know you can."

He _could_. Arthur breathed in through his nose and slid his mouth down further, until he nearly choked with it.

Merlin continued to stroke Arthur's face. "That's it, so good, so good." The praise sent a shiver through Arthur and he moaned loudly. The reverberations were enough to set Merlin off, his fingers tightening on Arthur and his whole body freezing. Arthur continued to suck, swallowed all that he could, though some slipped out of his mouth along with the saliva he hadn't even noticed pooling.

"Fuck, Arthur." Merlin pulled on Arthur's shoulders to coax him up; they ended up sprawled across the bed, their legs dangling off the side. "Come here, come here, come come come…" He wrapped his hand around Arthur's cock and stroked, just the right pace, to bring Arthur to climax within moments. Merlin slotted their mouths together and kissed him through his orgasm, open-mouthed and breathless.

Arthur felt himself start drifting off to sleep, even as Merlin grumbled about clean-up. He would have felt slightly guilty about that, except Merlin coaxed him under the covers. "I'll take care of everything, all right?"

"Love you," Arthur mumbled, which got him a quick caress in response.

\--

For lunch the next day, Merlin took Arthur to the café where they'd had their first date. It wasn't a posh or expensive restaurant, like the kind Arthur favored, but Merlin thought the sentimentality of it would be enough to outweigh whatever judgments Arthur would likely be thinking. And hey, the place was brightly lit; Arthur hated dim lighting.

He always felt a bit bad about forcing Arthur to eat food he hated or go out to places he didn't enjoy, even while he got that thrill of knowing Arthur would do anything he asked if issued as an order. Arthur had hidden his distaste for mushrooms simply because Merlin wanted him to. Still, it was meant as punishment for misbehaving: just spanking Arthur or humiliating him in private wouldn't do much to deter future bad behavior when the man enjoyed it so damn much.

"… and then I find the intern just sitting about, being lazy, because nobody thought to give him proper work to do!" Arthur complained. Merlin smiled indulgently, used to hearing all sorts of work-related rants. As long as they didn't delve into unwarranted personal insults, Merlin let them slide -- after all, nobody could be expected to be nice all the time, especially not at in a stressful work environment.

His mind wandered to the phone call he'd had earlier with Lance, thanking him for dinner and marveling at "how different Arthur is now." "Before he met you, he was always a bit stuck up. I think he would have forgiven me eventually, but he would never have apologized. But now… it's amazing how much he tries for you."

No matter that Arthur had agreed to let Merlin mold him like this, it actually surprised Merlin a bit too; he had half expected it to be an impossible task. Certainly near the beginning there were moments when both of them had been ready to just call it quits on everything.

He checked his watch: Arthur had about another twenty minutes before he had to get back to the office.

Arthur seemed surprised when Merlin placed a flat box on the table between them. "What's this?"

"It's a present for you. Open it."

Hesitantly, Arthur reached out to pick the box up. The lid lifted up easily, but was dropped when Arthur saw the contents of the box. "This is--"

Merlin got up and went to stand beside Arthur. He picked up the short silver chain from the box and held it out for Arthur to see.

The design was vastly different from the old one. The old one was simple and cheap, from before Merlin had been able to afford anything lavish. He'd felt almost guilty about how much Arthur had seemed to love it, when really it could have been from Tesco. (Not that it _was_ , but Merlin hadn't spent that much more on it.) This new one had rectangular links that interlocked with each other in a dense pattern, creating a much more solid chain.

"Look at the clasp," Merlin said. Arthur did as he was told, holding the clasp up for closer inspection: on the links nearest to the clasp was the engraving "Property of Merlin."

"Shit, Merlin, I--" Arthur didn't finish his words, just turned his head to kiss Merlin; Merlin smiled into the kiss.

"Shall I put it on you?" Merlin offered once he pulled away.

"Yes, yes, _yes_."


End file.
